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Larry Osterman

@larryosterman.github.io

Long term MSFT employee, Dad, Singer. Expect cat pictures, tech nerding, etc. Previous: SMB filesystem, Exchange Store, Windows Audio, Windows Runtime, COM, Confidential computing. Current: Azure SDK for C++ Proud LGBTQIA+ ally. Profile pic from Not

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Latest posts by Larry Osterman @larryosterman.github.io

I wonder how that happens, I've been doing rust for a couple of years almost exclusively and no crabs :(.

06.03.2026 04:10 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I cleared off two shelves in my office. Still have a pile of electronics to go through, but I have two mostly empty shelves.

Somewhat proud of myself for getting rid of a bunch of junk.

05.03.2026 04:41 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

My new office overlooks a driveway and parking lot. And my chair backs into a concrete column.

And I have almost no coworkers in the room I'm assigned to, except for one.

I'm jealous.

05.03.2026 03:40 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Maybe? I usually think of legalese as the Latin phrases and unfamiliar terms which show up in documents.

But to me, a better example is the terms of service on any web site - about every 6 months or so there's a panic over the ToS on a web site because the ToS are lawspeak for "a web site".

03.03.2026 12:47 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

For years, I have have said that legal documents are written in a Domain Specific Language which vaguely resembles English, however it should never, ever be confused with the language we call "English".

Similar to how COBOL is a DSL which also resembles English.

03.03.2026 07:00 πŸ‘ 24 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

It's only in the past three weeks or so that memory has become somewhat reliable (I spent a month trying tasks that required reliable memory subsystems).

It's somewhat terrifying how fast this space moves.

It's even faster than the browser wars of the 1990s.

03.03.2026 05:04 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

What she said. Omg such yelling and swearing.

"So, did you actually do the thing I asked you to do?"

"You're absolutely right, I totally ignored you. But in my defense there was an ambiguous instruction, so I didn't have to listen to you"

Asshole.

03.03.2026 04:20 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Maybe the best cirque show we've seen in years. We're going back in two weeks.

02.03.2026 04:33 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Yup. post-polio == long polio. Though I personally think "syndrome" fits better (at a minimum, it sounds more "medical" :)).

25.02.2026 19:54 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

My mother's entire life was shaped by her childhood polio infection. She had a relatively mild case, but she dealt with post-polio syndrome related issues throughout her adult life.

25.02.2026 19:41 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

<Searches for the Damn You Ned Pyle gif>...

23.02.2026 03:11 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I am so not looking forward to that.

At least our buildings will be spared the parking nightmares until next month.

23.02.2026 02:40 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

So happy we don't have to deal with that michegas till the ides of march.

23.02.2026 02:28 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

VS Studio Github Copilot and Github Copilot CLI, both with Claude Opus 4.6.

21.02.2026 01:09 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
SideQuested by K B Spangler | Brick and Mortar Books The course of true love never did run straight…For fans of The Owl House and Critical Role comes the first volume in the lighthearted and epic adventure SideQuested!Magic makes the world go round, but...

Ooh, found it at my favorite local bookstore: @brick-mortar.bsky.social : www.brickandmortarbooks.com/item/pTAB62u...

18.02.2026 00:06 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

But now we have the actual documents, which is nice.

And she's going to legally change her name next month courtesy of the "SAVE" act.

And I shudder to think of what other people (mostly women) without the kind of resources we've been blessed to have would go through.

17.02.2026 23:45 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

It helps that COVID forced a bunch of places to enable online ordering of forms. She started this process when RealId was becoming a thing (which required a birth certificate and marriage license, both of which she didn't physically have).

We ended up just getting passport cards, which was easier.

17.02.2026 23:45 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Valorie spent *months* trying to come up with ours.

It was a nightmare because originally, the town we were married in didn't have its marriage license forms digitized so she would have had to appear in person to get a copy of the license.

Fortunately, that changed during COVID but still...

17.02.2026 23:34 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Ditto. Utterly disrespectful comment and I don't need to ever hear from them again.

16.02.2026 23:03 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Yummy!

14.02.2026 02:46 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

And I'm almost certain they have routine drills where they turn off stuff (networks, servers, etc) to make sure stuff fails over properly.

My sister tells stories of when such a drill went horribly wrong for her old company a decade or so ago and she had very senior govt officials calling her.

13.02.2026 02:57 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Pro tip: If you have a large monorepo in GitHub and are ever thinking of having copilot open 200+ minor formatting issues assigned to copilot, so that copilot agent creates 200+ PRs and then telling local copilot to automate approve/merge of those 200+ PRs, maybe just... don't.

11.02.2026 17:30 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1

I have to say I'm not upset that my jury duty got cancelled today.

I really wasn't looking to being in downtown Seattle on Wednesday (although I'd likely be in a courtroom during most of the chaos).

10.02.2026 00:43 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

FWIW, Sidequested was my gateway drug, and then detoured to (and devoured) AGAF, and now am working through the Rachael Peng books, which are all simply wonderful.

09.02.2026 23:08 πŸ‘ 22 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Seattle area: Run, do not walk to see Cirque du Soleil Echo in Redmond.

It's that good.

And we ARE seeing it again

08.02.2026 06:16 πŸ‘ 15 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Tonight's dinner conversation included Cantors diagonalization proof, Othello, and Ranked Competitive Breast Growth.

#welcometotheosterhorde

08.02.2026 02:47 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Windows 386 Promo Video
Windows 386 Promo Video YouTube video by Joe Paris

I just learned that one of my early 1990s coworkers, Adrian King has tragically left us.

Adrian was an amazing individual and was responsible for possibly one of the most epic Microsoft promotional videos ever made.

He shows up at about 11 minutes into the video.

06.02.2026 05:24 πŸ‘ 16 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0

That's specifically why I thought she would work. And I was very wrong.

06.02.2026 01:24 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I made the mistake of pointing my 30yo daughter (who is a huge Manga and Light Novel fan) to Andre Norton.

Books that I *devoured* in 1970 were dismissed out-of-hand as having irredeemable gender viewpoints.

06.02.2026 00:43 πŸ‘ 26 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1

The 2000 WA State gubernatorial race was an eye opener, and @goldy.horsesass.org's excellent coverage at HorsesAss gave me an excellent primer on how it's possible for elections to be both messy as heck, and 100% reliable.

The "messy as heck" part is mostly where "election fraud" claims come from.

03.02.2026 21:51 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0